DotGNU - Keeping You from Getting Tangled in a Net!

The DotGNU project was started in reaction to Microsoft's .NET strategy,
which was born out of a vision for the future of information technology
which we do not agree with, namely that "the era of 'open computing,' the
free exchange of digital information that has defined the personal computer
industry, is ending."

That .NET vision statement is so shocking that it is necessary to provide
appropriate context, quoted here under "fair use" rights from the
New York Times, July 25, 2002 (Late Edition, Section C, Page 6,
Column 3) article "Microsoft Tries to Explain What Its .Net Plans Are
About", written by John Markoff:

Microsoft sketched out an abbreviated road map today of how it will introduce
products that offer .Net capabilities. One example was a communications server
program with the code name Greenwich that is intended to enable advanced
multimedia conferencing features for desktop and hand-held computer
users. Another example was the next version of the company's database product,
SQL Server, named Yukon, which is intended to make it easier to manage
distributed data.

Finally, a brief demonstration was given of Windows Media Center -- a PC-based
television that is intended to bring .Net-style information to the television
in the living room.

Mr. Gates indicated, however, that the company's software promised land would
be a new version of its Windows operating system with the code name Longhorn,
which is still at least two years off.

Microsoft also warned today that the era of ''open computing,'' the free
exchange of digital information that has defined the personal computer
industry, is ending.

The company is trying to influence an industry consortium called the Trusted
Computing Platform Alliance, which has been trying to create a new standard
that will build a cryptographic key system into future personal computers.

While Microsoft's vision of "trusted computing" and "digital rights
management" cannot possibly stop the illegal sharing of music (if you can
listen to a piece of music, you can also create a recording and distribute
that), it would render
Free Software
unsuitable for business use, at least in countries with laws
like the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" in the U.S., because under that
kind of law it is illegal to exchange data under "digital rights management"
with a Free Software program which can be easily modified by anyone with
programming skills.

Of course Microsoft would like everyone to believe that "the era of 'open
computing' is ending."

However we say: "Ok, MS you are pushing webservices and C# and IL because you
want to catch everyone in your dotNET, but
GNU is taking
precisely that set of technologies and using it to set
the world free from your monopolies." We do not know whether webservices
and C# and IL are indeed the future of computing like Microsoft would like
them to be. If Microsoft is wrong and these technologies achieve only limited
importance, the economic and legal victories of the GNU/Linux operating
system, as documented on the Groklaw weblog, are
sure to protect the future of the "the era of 'open computing'", so that
there is nothing to worry about. If on the other hand Microsoft is successful
with their .NET technology, the competition from the DotGNU project will
ensure that Microsoft cannot simply use .NET to end "the era of 'open
computing'". In order for DotGNU to achieve this, it is not necessary for
our software to have a huge marketshare; it is enough to keep the project
alive in order to defend the fundamental freedom of the internet, because
that already provides an alternative that users will flock to if Microsoft
tries to abuse their market position too badly.

DotGNU will be a complete replacement for .NET (and not just a Free Software
implementation). The goals are to provide a reasonably
compatible system and then improve on what Microsoft is offering.

Unlike .NET, DotGNU will use a peer-to-peer system for service
discovery, and avoid the use of centralized
authentication/authorization portals like the "Passport" system.
DotGNU's strategy for these areas is not only technologically
superior, but it also serves to ensure that no-one will ever have the kind of
monopoly power which would be necessary for ending the free exchange of digital
information.

Additional, Related Dangers

Microsoft's political lobbying

According to a recent article in CIO
Magazine, Microsoft has an overwhelming impact on technology policy,
and Microsoft has lobbied particularly hard against "open source".

A major concern with webservices is that data which should properly
be under the control of the users of the server may be stored on
the webservice server. This may result in the business problem of
vendor lock-in because this may make it difficult to move to a different
webservice vendor, or to move a service in-house which was previously
outsourced as a webservice. The DotGNU webservices vision proposes a
solution to this remote data problem.

No-one Else Is Challenging Microsoft

There are no real remaining traditional competitors to MS, and the US
government recently failed to contain MS, so the field is left to the
Free Software movement. We do not know whether the contribution of
the DotGNU project to the eventual defeat of Microsoft's monopolistic
plans will be big or small, but we know that MS has announced that
they are "betting the company" on .NET, because of a belief that "Webservices"
represent the future, and Windows and MS Office will become progressively
less important. If that belief turns out to be ture, DotGNU will stand
between where MS is and where it wants to be. In this case, DotGNU and .Net
might represent the ultimate showdown between proprietary and Free Software.

Frequently Asked Questions

Isn't it foolish to try competing with Microsoft?

Just like it's the goal of the GNU project
to create a complete operating system that makes it completely
unnecessary to use a non-free operating system like e.g. Microsoft
Windows, it's the goal of the DotGNU project to be a complete
competitor to Microsoft's ".Net initiative".

The DotGNU project will compete with Microsoft for end-users,
business customers and developers.

Microsoft Windows had a huge head start over GNU/Linux in terms
of user-friendliness to end users. In spite of Microsoft's vast
resources, GNU/Linux is already better than Microsoft Windows in
some areas, and catching up fast in most others.

We believe that the same kind of success story is possible with
the DotGNU project. The main difference is that this time,
Microsoft doesn't have such a big head start.

Why can't we just wait and see whether the effects of .NET are really
so bad?

Read this warning
written in 1896. It is often said that the price of freedom is
eternal vigilance.3 Unless we counter them, Microsoft's efforts
are not only a threat to Free Software, they are also extremely
dangerous tools in the hands of any Evil Government that wants
to make their citizens unfree.

This truth was popularized by Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826).
The original source seems to be a speech by John Philpot Curran,
who said "It is the common fate of the indolent to see their
rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath
given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he
break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the
punishment of his guilt." - John Philpot Curran: Speech upon the
Right of Election, 1790. (Speeches. Dublin, 1808.)

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